Kuma Sannin
by rasen mokuton
Summary: Even heroes need back up some time, who better than the Kuma Sannin
1. The Kuma Sannin

Kuma Sannin

(I Don't Own Naruto, even though that would be sweet!) There isn't much of the action in this yet but there will be in chapter two, please review and tell me what you think, I do ask that you refrane from cussing or swearing in your reviews please and remember, this is my first fanfiction ps. This story will involve Naruto greatly, it just takes a little build up first.:)

Chapter 1: Ketama the Kuma Sannin

"This is the most important of rituals in our clan Michi, it symbolizes the coming of age and the confirmation of your path in life and in the clan" the old head of the Yochi clan raised the sacred stone in his palm to the young Michi who stared with apprehention at the clans most sacred object, though it wasn't much to look at - a simple stone really, it was said to hold an ancient power. - Michi still feared it a little. Michi stood up and touched the stone in the elders hand, and pushed some of his chakra into it, the stone began to glow softly blue for a moment, then faded away. Michi sighed in relief "The young man has passed through his right of passage." said the Village elder, "he is a man of this village now and forever. congratulations Michi." The elder smiled warmly at Michi as he and the village audience began to filter out of the ceremonial meeting house, soon there would be games and food and much celebrating over Michi's rite of passage.

As the old man began to walk away from the ceremonial meeting house, Ketama, Michi's fifteen year old little brother began to pester the elder, "Come on, I'm totally ready to take the test, I have my Chakra and every thing!" the spikey brown haired string bean kept bouncing up and down around the elder as the elder sigh in frustration, "You are not yet sixteen Ketama, you must be patient, it is only one more year until your birthday, can you not wait?" Ketama stood right in front of the elder crossing his arms, staring with his hard green eyes, and standing as tall as his five foot four inches would allow him to, "I can do anything my brother can, and i won't give up until you let me try it." seeing that he wasn't going to get any peace until the boy got what he wanted, the old man took the stone out of his pocket and handed it to the stubborn child. "This is our secret, and if you tell anyone that I did this, I will have you massaging my festering bunions for the next month." the look of horror on Ketama's face was priceless, but he quickly snapped out of it and focused on pushing his chakra into the stone in his hand. The stone began to glow the same as it did with Michi's chakra, and then faded, The elder smiled kindly at Ketama, "I never doubted that you would pass, but i am glad you did." The two smiled at each other a moment until the Stone began to shake and pulse with light, Ketama tried to drop it, even shaking his hand violently but the stone stayed fixed to his hand, with a loud pop and a puff of smoke the stone and Ketama were gone! All that was left was the dumb struck elder and one of Ketama's sandles on the ground.

With a loud pop Ketama came screaming (yes like a girl) toward the earth from thirty feet in the air still holding the stone, fortunately he landed head first in a lake. Splash! he came to the surface spluttering and splashing, swam to the bank of the lake and collapsed on the sand unconscious.

Some time later when the sun was just rising over the mountains Ketama woke up to the sound of singing "...silent as the earth, as stubborn as stone, slow to upheaval, but never alone. my feet are set firm, my back held straight, never you see me, for this is my fate." the last word was drawn out in low tones but never the less powerful, it wasn't what you would call a master piece but it some how struck something deep in Ketama as he sat up, "Beautiful morning isn't it young man?" it was more of a statement than a question. the man who spoke was fishing with a make shift pole as he sat on the shore with his back to Ketama, he was wearing a dark green cloak with dark brown trim on the edges, but Ketama couldn't see anything else from behind and the sun was in his eyes when he looked at the man, "Where am I?" Ketama asked the man, for a long while there was no answer and Ketama started getting frustrated until the man slowly answered, "We are at the beginning of your journey. the place where it will all start from, and maybe even where it will end."

Ketama stood up and walked over to the man and stared hard at him, from the front you could tell very little of what he looked like, he had a dark green mask that matched his cloak covering his nose and mouth, but he also had jet black spiky hair and very pale skin (kind of like the Uchiha), his stormy grey eyes filled with a melancholy sadness that almost scared Ketama, suddenly as if a switch had been turned on the man smiled and his eyes brightened, "Now what is your name, hmm?" at first Ketama wasn't sure if he could trust the man but after considering that the man could have killed him already while he was asleep, he decided that it was safe enough, "My name is Ketama." the man looked up at Ketama for a moment before exploding in laughter, he continued laughing until tears started coming out, " Your name is Hair ball?!" suppressing the urge to laugh any more the man patted the ground next to him, even though Ketama was indignant at being laughed at, he took the seat that was offered to him, "I don't see what is so funny, so what if my name is Hair ball, i'll fight anyone who has a problem with it!" Ketama was just shy of shouting as he finished and he was red in the face, "Now, now, don't pop your top, it's been a long time since I laughed, and I needed it." Ketama settled down a little but was still a little heated by the jabs at his name, "Well then, what amazing name do you have?" he looked at Ketama from the corner of his eye and said, "Sensei" "What kind of name is that?" The man or "Sensei" as we know him leaned over and whispered in his ear, "It's the only name you get for now."

Ketama kept pestering "Sensei" for his real name until the fishing line began to jerk and shudder in the man's hands, after ten minutes they had a nice large fish roasting on a stick on a nice warm fire, Ketama was about to pester the man for his name again when the man handed him the stick with the fish still steaming from the flames, "Aren't you going to eat any?" Ketama asked, "Nope, I don't need to eat anymore." "how come?" Ketama was staring at the man as he looked at the fire with distant eyes, "Well, to put quite simply, I'm dead." the fish in Ketama's hand froze half way to his mouth, with his mouth hanging wide open and his eyes bugging out, "WHAT!" Ketama yelled as he fell backwards trying to back up, "You can't be dead, ghosts aren't real!" he backed up a little more as the man thought for a moment, "Well I don't know about ghosts, but I am real and I am dead." "how can you be dead, and not be a ghost if your sti...Zombie!" Ketama was pointing a shaking finger at him as he panicked, "Now your just being ridiculous, and insulting, do I look like i'm missing any limbs , or drooling, and have I mentioned eating brains even once?" Ketama paused for a moment then pointed at the man again, "Vampi-" Thwak! faster that Ketama could see the man was behind him giving him a mighty smack to back of the head, "If you'll sit down and be quiet for a minute, I'll explain!" with a huff and some grumbling Ketama sat back down at the fire crossing his arms and legs while pouting over the lump on his head. the man sat next to him and began his explanation as Ketama fidgeted uncomfortably.

"First of all I'm was born some five hundred years ago..." "you don't look that old" "I grew up in the village of Hi..." "Never heard of it" "Where I Met the Sage of Six Paths..." "Who's that?" "If you will be silent for five minutes I will tell you!" "Sorry" "as I was saying, that is where I met the Sage of Six Paths, in those days, the word chakra didn't exist and those who had it were revered as magician, sorcerers, or the enlightened, each group was labeled by their actions, a magician was one who used his chakra for good, sorcerers were the ones who used it for evil, and the Enlightened were those who communed with nature, trying to "become one" with nature, most failed and many turned to stone for their troubles, only the temple priests were able to touch nature and survive, I was the student of the Priests of that time, and I was one of the few who could touch nature while still surviving, but one of my fellow students was the Sage of Six Paths whose name I won't say, but from the first day we met I knew he was special. He possessed eyes that looked like rippling pools of silver, they allowed him to see chakra and to understand it, as we trained he discovered that this energy came from within most of the time and could be controled by various hand shapes and later by the use of the sealing language, I became a very powerful initiate in the order of the priests because of my ability to commune with nature. While the sage was able to better harness his own chakra and shape and mold it far better than me.

I decided that the life of a monk wasn't for me so I went to the Priest and asked them if I could go into the world and explore what it had to offer. the head priests called me to a special chamber where they performed meditation and other rituals. as I sat there they spoke to me, "young disciple, we understand that you are restless and wish to see the world and we will allow it if you undertake a duty in exchange." "And what duty is this?" "your fellow Disciple, he with the silver eyes is to be a great protector of the world, we have foreseen it, but he needs a guide and protector. Therefore we ask that you journey with him into the world as his companion in the shadows." I thought for a long time about it, "I Accept" "Very well, then lay down on the floor before us and prepare yourself." I lay there for hours as they chanted and communed with nature, or as we now call it, "Building chakra", they chanted from sun up till sun down, then later in the night they started to chant faster and faster and I began to feel immense pain as my body started changing on the inside, I morphed and grew into the form of a grizzly bear, and as the pain grew I felt my fur harden, and heat grew around my body, the more pain I felt, the greater the heat, until I passed out.

I woke up the next day sweating and the priests told me that they had granted me a power stronger than any other in the world save for that of a demon. With my new strength, which was the first bloodline limit, The Sage and I set out for the world, and in our travels I learned from the Sage and became a sage in my own rite, few knew about me as I stayed in the shadows to protect the Sage, but those who knew me, knew me as the Kuma Sage or Kuma Sannin. I learned and helped create the Sage arts, and the Sealing arts. Whenever the world needed help, we were there, and when the Juubi attacked, It was partially my work that sealed the beast into the sage.

On one occasion when we visited the temple for a long rest, an old priest pulled me aside and told me that he had seen my future and told me that I would not be the only Kuma Sannin, he said that the Kuma sage would always appear when a great evil and a great hero appeared, he said that the duty of the Kuma Sannin would always be to prepare the Great hero for the battle against the Evil in the world, and the last thing he told me was that this was my legacy and responsibilty for the future, after that stay I parted ways with the Sage of Six Paths, and concentrated on preserving my legacy for the next Kuma Sannin, I learned new techniques and created many that I would teach to my successor. But I always ran into the same problem, would I be alive when he or she was born? I had no way of knowing and so I came up with a plan, I created a sealing technique that would be able preserve what you see now, I am no more than a shadow clone of the original Kuma Sannin who died some four hundred and twenty years ago, and I was sealed into that stone that also brought you here, so that I could teach you all you need to know to help the Hero of this time."

Ketama was shocked by all that he had heard, He had so many questions but one stood out above all others. "Am I the Kuma Sannin?" the ancient shadow clone looked at him with pride and answered back, "Yes you are, you are here to balance the world in it's time of need, I am going to train you in all my arts and then you will set out to find the hero of your time, so that you can help him to become the greatest hero he can be." as the day drew on, they talked about their plans for the future and all that they needed to do. During that day "Sensei" learned everything he could about his new student, how much chakra he had, what training he had (virtually none) what skills he possessed (not many) and weather he was ready to take on such huge responsibilties.


	2. A Kuma's Training: part 1

Kuma Sannin

Chapter 2: A Kuma's Training!

... Balance is Boredom ... Sweat poured off of Ketama's brow as he held the heavy stones in his hands while balanced on the tree branch fifteen feet in the air with one leg extended outward. "The life of a Kuma Sannin is based in the balance that he must bring to the worlds of good and evil, you will never become a Kuma Sannin if you can not balance your self, as a Kuma Sannin you must be able to balance the powers of good and evil while placing yourself in harms way." "I understand the whole balance thing but why am I holding rocks and risking my neck? shouldn't you be teaching me some ancient killer technique or something?" Ketama tried his best to hide it but he was not fond of hights. "This excercise is meant to illustrate the life of a Kuma Sannin; in your right hand you hold the power of good, in your left hand is the power of evil, and the branch and all that is below you represents your need for balance, if you lose focus even for a moment, you will fall and face the consequences." Ketama looked down and his vision swam in circles for a moment and he began to sway and wobble, but just before he would have fallen he closed his eyes and straightened his body. "Excellent Ketama, you regained your focus and kept the powers balanced." "Sensei, why is the rock on the right so much heavier than the left one?" the clone smiled as if he had expected this question,"Good question, and the answer is quite simple, Evil often gains strength with far more ease than good does, if you want to balance these two powers or even tip the balance in favor of good, you must work harder than Evil will. By it's nature evil has no boundries and therefore can take short cuts in it's persuit for power, causing incredible damage in the process. In the mean time we - those who protect the innocent - must work harder to obtain the same strength." "Ooook, but how long do I have to do this?!" Ketama shouted as the sweat on his head kept streaming down. "Sensei" looked up from where he sat in the shade of the tree, he pursed his lip - though you couldn't see it with the mask on his face - then said, "When you master the balance of a Kuma Sannin...or when you pass out. which ever comes first." Ketama stayed balanced well into the afternoon but eventually he dropped one of the stones and lost his balance, he fell to the ground exhausted.

over the next week Ketama sweated and worked, he worked harder than he ever had in his entire life, his sensei didn't even allow him to use his chakra to keep himself steady " you must train your body before you train you chakra" he'd said, and Ketama did, hour after hour he trained to master his balance and strengthen his body, he switched his balancing leg and his stones every hour. he constantly kept his mind focused on the nothing but the balance, but as he continued his training he discovered that little by little he didn't need to focus on the balance, it became natural. During this time his mind was so focused, that Ketama would sink so deeply into his mind that he could almost see his chakra if he closed his eyes. it was amazing to him, he could almost see the flame of his chakra writhing in his stomach,

After a while Ketama opened his eyes and looked around, everything was dark! "How long were my eyes closed?" he had been talking to himself but when his sensei had heard him he looked up to answer, "Oh...about eight hours give or take." Ketama's eyes looked like dishes as he thought about this, but he soon forgot when his stomach started growling and he fell over the side of the branch. Just before he would have hit the ground, his sensei caught him and sat him against the tree, "You just relax for now while I build a fire and make some food." Ketama could see that in his own way the sage was a kind man, though he was still a sad one. Ketama couldn't figure out why he was so sad, so he decided to ask him when he finished eating something.

After a nice hot bowl of fish stew, Ketama looked at his sensei and asked, "Hey, sensei why do you always stare like that?" the sages eyebrows wrinkled, "What do you mean?" Ketama sighed and pointed at him, "like that, your always staring at space. why do ya do that?" "I didn't relise I was doing that. well I was remembering everyone from my past, my wife, children, the sage, everyone I used to know. They are all long gone now, and it kind of makes me sad." "Wait, wait..." Ketama interupted, " You had a family?" the sage rolled his eyes, "Yes, being the Kuma Sannin doesn't mean you vanish completely, it just means you stay in the shadows most of the time. You should be grateful I did have a family." Ketamas nose scrunched up in thought, "why should I?" "Well for one thing it means that you can have a family, and two is that if I hadn't, you wouldn't be here." Ketama tried hard to think about it but it still didn't make any sense. "Why?" the sage sighed and looked at his student, "I was hoping to teach you more before I told you this but since you brought it up I will tell you anyway; do you remember the stone that brought you here?" Ketama nodded, "That stone reads a persons chakra and decides whether or not that person is a sage." "How does it do that." "Only a person who hold the same Kekke Genkai as me can become a sage, and the only people who have a chance of having my Kekke Genkai are my decendants." It took Ketama a few moments to figure it out but he soon relised the truth, "So you and I are related?" the sage smiled, "yes, though by now I'm probably your great, great, great, great, great, great, grandfather or something like that." "Wow...can I call you gramps?" Ketama was smiling like a maniac, and the sage had to take a couple seconds to catch up with what his student had said. "No way! Never! Uh-uh!" Ketama smiled evily, "Too late Gramps, your stuck now." the sages eyebrow twitched as he curved his massive killing intent, "Just remember, I decide how early and how hard you'll be training kid!" Ketama paled as he thought of the last week, and then another question came to mind, "Hey gramps, what is our Kekke Genkai?" the sage twitched again, fending off another wave of killing intent. "Tomorrow we start your chakra training, when you finish with that maybe in a couple weeks, I will teach you about our Kekke Genkai." The sage smiled smuggly because he knew the suspence was killing his rather impatient student, during his balance and strengthening training he had complained a lot, and once he even tried to drop one of the stones on his sensei, but that didn't workout well because he lost his balance and fell out of the tree...again! Ketama glared at his distant relation 'cause he knew he was doing it on perpose.

...Chakra Challenge...  
Splash! "Aaaahh!" Ketama rocketed out of his blankets the moment the icy water hit him. He sputtered about looking for the truly evil person who had drenched him head to toe in icy water! "What in the world was that for Gramps?!" Ketama snarled as he caught sight of his sensei who sat against a tree looking quite smug at his student, "I warned you that I could control how early you would wake up...did I forget to mention how I would wake you up?" though he said it innocently enough, there was no innocence behind it. "You almost gave me a heart attack!" the sage cocked an eyebrow and bent his head foreward, "That I seriously doubt, but now that your awake, why don't you stretch out your legs and arms. today is going to be fun...for me" a sinking feeling slipped into Ketama's stomach when he heard that.

"Ok, today you start your chakra training, to do that you are going to..." Ketama was on edge, he could feel his heart racing and thoughts of fantastic killer ninjutsu rushed through his mind. "Climb trees!" The wind mysteriously started blowing around them and the sound of crickets could be heard a small fish leaped into the air over the lake and just as it landed in the water in the water Kerplun-"What kind of chakra training is THAT!" Ketama shouted, the sage walked over to the tree as Ketama continued to rant, "-f I wanted to learn tree climbing I would have asked my older bro-oooOH WOW!" Ketama's jaw dropped as his sensei started walking up the side of the tree, it was a new thing to see for Ketama because in his village there were no ninja and you only learn to use your chakra enough to go through the rite of passage to become an adult.

"Now the trick to tree climbing or rather tree walking is to apply chakra to the bottom of your feet. too much and you lauch yourself off the tree, too little and you either slip down or you just fall. you're just starting so you might want to get a running start. and Ketama remember that you have a pretty large supply of chakra, that means it'll be harder for you to control your chakra. but that's what this is for, learning control and somewhat for building up bigger chakra reserves. you can build your chakra best by making the hand seal Ram, like this." Ketama copied his sensei's hands, and built up his chakra, then sent it down to his feet, and started his first run at the tree. The moment his foot touched the tree he lauched into the air and flew over their camp site over twenty feet away and landed on the other side skidding to a halt. "OoowwW!" Ketama got up and dusted himself off, as he was walking he said, "I think I put just a tad too much into that." his sensei smirked from his seat in the tree, "Oh I agree, that is if a tad were somewhere around five times too much!" his sacrasm was so thick you could cut it with a kunai. "Hey it was my first try!" Ketama formed the Ram seal again and tried again. and this time he land right in his bed, only about fifteen feet away. Ketama looked up at his sensei who's shoulder were shaking with laughter.

Again and again Ketama ran at the tree and after four hours of trying, he managed to walk six steps without falling hard or flying backwards. "You are definitely improving, but as I said before, you are going to have a hard time controling your chakra. Because our Kekke Genkai is so powerfull, our bodies have developed large chakra coils and higher reserves of chakra, the greater the chakra the harder it is to control." Ketama thought for a moment about it, He stood there thinking about his balance training and how it had let him almost see his chakra, 'maybe if I meditate again, i'll be able to feel my chakra better and control it.' he thought. Ketama meditated, sinking deeper and deeper into his mind and finally he could almost see his chakra again, he could feel every pulse and wave of chakra as it swirled in his chakra coils, 'my chakra does seem kinda wild, maybe if I slowed it down a little or smoothed it out or...' Ketama meditated hard on his chakra, working out the best amount he could guess for tree climbing. ten minutes later Ketama charged his chakra again, he ran at the tree and started his climb, he climbed higher and higher until he almost reached his sensei's feet thirty feet in the air, when he slid quickly down to the bottom. "very good Ketama, but when you got close, you lost focus because you were excited. a ninja must always be focused." "Yes sensei." the sage smiled as he leaned against the trunk closing his eyes.

Ketama tree walked for the next three days until he had completely mastered it, by the end of the three days, Sensei had said he was turning into a regular squirell, it was said in fun but Ketama had huffed and puffed saying that he wasn't some nut loving rodent, and that he was a ninja! to which his sensei replied, "Your not a ninja yet, but maybe soon." on the fourth day after starting tree climbing Sensei and Ketama were walking through the forest around the lake until they reached a group of enormous trees whose trunks had a slight static feel to them and when Ketama stood close to them his hair danced like a small flickering flame. "Wow what's up with these trees?" the sage smiled fondly at the trees and then to his student, "As a Kuma Sannin you must be able to use extremly precise chakra control, so this is going to be your new training ground." Ketama looked at the tree suspiciously, "but what's different about these trees?" Sensei was pleased to see his students shrewd observations, though he did suspect that it was because Ketama was expecting there to be some kind of trick from his teacher - not entirly unfounded. "These trees are a special kind of tree that obsorbs chakra, shinobi highly prize these trees because the can make a special paper from them that can test a persons chakra nature..." Ketama's nose scrunched up in thought, "Chakra nature? What's that?" "Chakra nature is the elements that a persons chakra can most easily manipulate whether it's Earth, Fire, Water,Wind, or Lightning. most people only have one primary chakra nature, and up to three secondary chakra natures. you will most likely have two elements Fire and Earth because of our Kekke Genkai." Ketama was drooling at the thought of controlling his elemental chakra and learing killer ninjutsu. then Ketama paused thinking, "But, you still didn't tell me how this makes it any different from all the other trees." the sage looked at him thinking back to all he had said, and relised that he was right, "Oh sorry about that, anyways the trees obsorbs so much chakra that when it's full it leaks chakra making it hard to grip the trunk, because the tree is pushing you away with it's own chakra, if you want to climb this tree you will need about a tenth of the chakra you used for regular trees." Sensei thouroghly enjoyed the shocked look on his students face, "What do you mean a tenth! it took me a whole day to get my chakra as small as I needed to climb normal trees!" Ketama was waving his arms around wildly like a chicken in wind storm. "Then you better get started, and I would suggest that you face your back to the lake. bye now" Sensei started walking away with a smile when Ketama shouted out, "Hey where are you going?" "I need to find your hero, and learn more about the world and what's going on, I'll be back by night fall." He answered as he walked away, "Hmph! as if I needed him to train me. I'll get this done quick and then take the rest of the day off...maybe...I hope."

Ketama's first twenty or so runs at the tree ended in him doing cannon balls dives into the lake. he spent more time swimming to the shore than he did climbing, and while he knew it was a softer landing than the hard ground, he had a sneaking suspicion the his sensei knew he would be swimming more than climbing. eventually he gave up and stripped his shirt and started again. all day he did this and in all the time from dawn to dust he only climbed three feet before he was launched into space, when his sensei returned, Ketama was lying on the ground panting heavily, drenched in water, and completely out of stamina, "Sooo...how was the training?" Ketama glared at his sensei and gasped, "You...Knew...I...was going to...look like...this!" he weazed out. "Well I didn't exactly know...but I guessed." the sage gave his shoulder to Ketama as they walked to their camp. "Tomorrow we'll try again." The next day was just as brutal as the last, and while he was making progress, Ketama was only gaining a little ground at any one time. This gruelling training continued for a weak and a half and by the twelth day he was climbing bottom to top and back in less than a minute, thus further afirming his sensei's belief that he was a nut loving squirell.

"Alright Ketama it's now time to learn a stamina building excercise, Water walking!" Ketama was ecstatic until he thought of something, "Hey why couldn't I have learned this before the super tree climbing so I wouldn't have to swim so much?" Ketama pouted. "You are never more motivated than when you have to win or pay consequences." the sage smiled not unkindly, "You will need to use more chakra than normal tree walking needs and it needs to be a constant flow of chakra or you will sink like a stone." after channelling chakra to his feet all day for over two weeks, Ketama didn't even need the Ram seal to build his chakra, and when he stepped onto the water, his feet only sunk an inch or two into the surface of the water. "You see? if you hadn't trained you chakra control on the chakra trees, you would have sunk first time without a doubt." Ketama water walked all-day until he could run laps around the edges of the lakes surface, "Now that you have learned chakra control and how to release a steady, heavy stream of chakra, it's time for ninjutsu." Ketama was shaking with excitement, though he did - to his credit - hold still and listen.

Sooo, what do you think? too long, too slow, maybe too short, not enough action? let me know and i'll read your reviews. just remember next week on saturday, we will start ninjutsu training while picking up speed. :) - Rasen Mokuton 


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